Leonard Cohen – Field Commander Cohen Lyrics

Cohen, referring to himself in the third person as a soldier, has always embodied both sides of the lover/fighter dichotomy. This song was written shortly after his volunteering to assist Israel in 1973’s Yom Kippur War. He was assigned a morale-boosting tour of singing to the troops.
In the picture – on his right General Arik Sharon (later Israeli Prime Minister). On his left, popular Israel singer Mati Caspi

The song was apparently written or at least begun a couple of years prior to the Yom Kippur war:
However, upon forwarding the notebook pages containing his first creative efforts on the song ‘Field Commander Cohen’, Leonard indicated to Jarkko Arjatsalo of The Leonard Cohen Files that the song was begun sometime during 1971:

Let’s see, I went to Asmara after the Yom Kippur War which was in ‘73, wasn’t it? No, this little notebook predates that by a couple of years. There is an entry written on March 14, 1971, in the coffee shop of the Hilton in Acapulco, and one in Suzanne’s writing, on June 1, 1971. It also contains the first draft of ‘Love Is a Fire’ which was published in The Energy of Slaves, in 1972.

From the 1974 album New Skin for the Old Ceremony, which included other songs written since 1971.

Field Commander Cohen Lyrics by Leonard Cohen

[Verse 1]
Field Commander Cohen, he was our most important spy
Wounded in the line of duty
Parachuting acid into diplomatic cocktail parties
Urging Fidel Castro to abandon fields and castles
Leave it all and like a man
Come back to nothing special
Such as waiting rooms, ticket lines
Silver bullet suicides
And messianic ocean tides
And racial roller-coaster rides
And other forms of boredom advertised as poetry
[Chorus]
I know you need your sleep now
I know your life’s been hard
But many men are falling
Where you promised to stand guard

[Verse 2]
I never asked but I heard you cast your lot along with the poor
But then I overheard your prayer
That you be this and nothing more
Than just some grateful faithful woman’s favourite singing millionaire
The patron saint of envy and the grocer of despair
Working for the Yankee dollar

[Chorus]
I know you need your sleep now
I know your life’s been hard
But many men are falling
Where you promised to stand guard

[Verse 3]
Ah, lover come and lie with me, if my lover is who you are
And be your sweetest self awhile until I ask for more, my child
Then let the other selves be wrong, yeah, let them manifest and come
Till every taste is on the tongue
Till love is pierced and love is hung
And every kind of freedom done, then
Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love
Oh my love, oh my love, oh my love
Oh oh my love